Trendy old girl – soon to be seen on billboards

OR How do we knock some sense into our pictures? 😊

Jill Allemang

Mar 05, 2026

A decade ago – to mark the milestone of having owned a business for 10 years – I launched a personal travel and blogging project which I titled: NotaBackpacker. (1)

It was not a sabbatical. It was an excuse to explore original Swiss traditions – wrestling and stone throwing festivals, yodeling, hiking, ski skating. To integrate one step more fully here with a German writing course. And to make time for a few other things I had wanted to try such as dance (at which, I can say, I proved truly limited in talent, although I fully enjoyed learning before ultimately giving it up as “not me”).

I had asked a young woman on our team – a wonderfully creative, digitally capable 23-year-old – to help me develop blog visuals based on the strategic concept. I still vividly remember her first draft. She created a storyline about how important it is to have a whole life. Not to wait until you are old = 50.

Here was her proposed visual of a woman at 50. (No kidding, this is a true story.)

I smiled a little when she showed me, knowing how authentically she approached the request and said. “Great storyline. You get it. Yet for the image, do you know that I am 53?”

“Well, I didn’t mean you, of course!”

This was my profile photo already uploaded on the blog:

We worked on the visual a while. I finally decided to ask her to re-envision the concept through the eyes of a Millennial. To explain from her view how life and career planning looked. This full exchange with our entire team added depth to the project.

Meanwhile, I asked myself a million questions from the first draft

Is it possible that even when I wore up-to-date clothes and had travel bags, I still looked to our team member like that illustration??

It’s not so much that it bothered me – even now, I feel fortunate in what life has allowed me to do and believe that requires me to be the age I am in the present.

I found it simply, actually confounding.

As human beings, we carry different visual images of people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. I’ll bet you could get them correct in a guessing game. Yet from 50 on, we seem to have one picture – maybe sometimes in different clothes. Classic pattern blindness.

It’s like how all Formula One cars look alike to me, while fans see different machines, philosophies, aerodynamics and personalities. The difference in how a triathlete sees running shoes. Or business travelers see neutral-toned airport lounges. When we are looking from the outside, we may too quickly abdicate curiosity, discerning detail and active observation. Yet, when you are actually old, there is no “one old.”

My favorite trendy old guy

When I traveled to trade events for our previous business, in the field of elderly care, I used to take photos of one image of a man that I saw featured in several different company displays at multiple shows. I called him “trendy old guy“ and made it my personal quest to see if I could spot him. Honestly, how old is he? 50, 60, 70 or 80? Doesn’t matter. He’s represents old.

As I did, apparently already a decade ago. I should have licensed my blog image as “trendy old girl.” Look out for her on the next billboard!

I keep saying that we all deserve better design.

Seems that might include better art direction.

Let insiders show us the beautiful nuances experienced in each decade. And see if over time we can all notice them.

NOTES

(1) My Not a Backpacker blog project was not a piece of journalistic excellence or even regular posting discipline, although I enjoyed creating it. I will make it temporarily live again – with selected posts – in case you want to take a look. Then it will go back to my private collection.😊Also to note, I have worked with the Millennial team member who helped create blog visuals three times now – and would happily do it again, although it seems to me she has finally found her true calling in which she now, naturally, excels. Thank you, P!

(2) Research help provided by both ChatGPT and Perplexity.

Per Perplexity:

Pattern blindness is a cognitive state where your brain fails to notice, interpret, or use patterns that are actually present in the information in front of you. It’s not about poor eyesight or low intelligence; it’s about how your mind is processing data.

In more detail, pattern blindness shows up when:

• All the relevant data is available, but you don’t see the underlying regularities, trends, or relationships.
• You lock onto familiar habits or assumptions, so new patterns that don’t fit your existing mental models stay “invisible.”
• Working memory limits, distraction, overload, stress, or fatigue mean you can’t hold enough pieces in mind at once to connect them into a coherent pattern.

Some authors also talk about “pattern blindness loops,” where you repeatedly apply the same interpretations and solutions, which reinforces a narrow way of seeing and makes alternative patterns even harder to spot.